Government spending and taxes during recession.

Government spending and taxes during recession.

During a recession, the private sector spending drops for a
variety of reasons.

Demand for goods and services drop. Private investors tend
to restrict their investments. Factories tend to drop production and lay off
workers.

Eventually more and more businesses will continue to lay off
more because less and less people have the money to spend.

Revenues of government, state and local communities will
also fall. These revenues usually come from taxes, which is a portion of
individual and corporate incomes.

Local communities will be forced to cut back on many
essential services like law enforcement, emergency services, education, and the
maintenance of infrastructure.

All this will lead to higher unemployment, bankruptcies,
hunger, homelessness, desperation, and crime. In addition, there will be social
issues such as loss of personal dignity and in extreme situations we have seen
political revolutions. If this downward spiral continues we can expect serious
consequences for everyone including corporations, the rich, the middle class,
and the poor. In extreme situations, faith in capitalism can erode and there
can be considerable social pressure to move away from capitalism.

We all know that in every business transaction for goods and
services there must be a buyer who will spend. Without a buyer or a spender
there will not be any economic activity.

To prevent the downward spiral there has to be spending. If
the ailing private sector cannot provide enough spending, we will need someone
else to resuscitate the economy during a recession.

Economists recommend injecting government funds into the
economy without increasing taxes. Recession may be one of the few exceptions in
which economists can justify deficit financing.

In order to do this right the spending should be big enough
to make an impact. Ideally, spending
should be in labor-intensive projects that would benefit the community and
businesses.

It can include spending in construction, education,
communication networks, massive power-generation, and other major
infrastructure projects. For example during the Great depression of the 1930s,
the TVA was created. This not only created jobs, but it also helped us come out
of the economic depression. It also improved the quality of life by providing
cheap and clean electricity for millions. Industries who were heavily dependant
on large amounts of energy thrived. TVA also helped the US during the Second
World War by providing a huge amount of electricity needed to build the atomic
bomb that stopped the war with Japan.

With an effective stimulus package, such job creation will
start very quickly. With workers now having money, they will be able to create
a demand for goods and services. Businesses with capital will now begin to
invest in goods and services. This in turn creates more jobs and more demand
for good and services. More small business such as retail shops and restaurants
will sprout within many communities. There will be ample opportunities for the
masses to rise above subsistence. Self-esteem and consumer confidence of the
masses will improve. Human hardships, homelessness, crime and other social
issues will decrease.

Eventually, as the positive ripple effect continues, the tax
revenues naturally will go up and government’s deficit financing will not be
needed at some point. Eventually tax revenues will automatically rise due to
higher economic activity. This rise in revenues should now be used to reduce
the budget deficit. The justification for a budget deficit will not be there
anymore after the recession. Then taxes, fiscal policies, and interest-rates
should be adjusted to maintain the health of the economy and keep government
budgets balanced.

It has been argued that lowering taxes can help the economy.
It does up to some point.

The poor usually don’t pay much in taxes. Even though the
poor are likely to spend all they have, the relative small tax breaks will not
be significant enough to improve demand in goods and services. However, tax
breaks for them can still be justified due to human hardship.

During this time, with low consumer confidence, the middle
class may tend to hold back spending received from tax breaks. Some of them may
decide to spend more. Therefore, it is difficult to see if these tax breaks
alone to the middle class can be a significant factor in pulling the whole
economy out of recession.

During a recession tax breaks for huge corporations many not
be very helpful either.

A CEO once reported that even with corporate tax breaks there
is no incentive for his corporation to invest on adding jobs or increasing
production. This is because there is very little demand for his goods from the
masses during a recession.

For rich individuals, who make millions of dollars a year, a
tax break of $20,000 will not significantly change their spending habits
either. It is unlikely that Bill Gates or Warren Buffett would change his
personal spending habits just because of a $50,000 tax break. And since
millionaires are not as common as the rank and file these tax breaks will not
have the desired impact on the economy. To make things worse such tax breaks
would take a bigger toll on the federal budget. So the tax breaks for the rich
during recession puts the government in a deeper deficit with less positive
impact to the economy. Therefore, tax breaks for the rich are not likely to get
us out of recession.

Should the government spend more in areas such as
unemployment benefits by raising them or extending them during a recession, the
impact of every dollar would be quite significant. This segment of the
population is living near or below subsistence.

They are likely to spend all their benefits to make ends
meet. Even then, a good portion of them
will not have enough to pay for all basic needs such as rent, mortgage, auto
repairs, and insurance premiums. Since they are likely to spend all they get,
every dollar spent on these entitlements has a good impact on the economy. These entitlements also have a big impact in
reducing human hardships and stabilizing the community while the unemployed are
seeking employment opportunities that can provide a better income to maintain a
more desirable lifestyle.

In conclusion, it should be understood that deficit
financing by the government is appropriate when it comes when the economy is in
recession or depression. This is also considered to be a textbook solution by
many economists. It has been practiced in many countries including China, Japan
and parts of Europe and Asia. Deficit financing should not be abused just for
just tax reductions during normal times. Japan was one of the first nations to
successfully use deficit financing to reduce the impact of the economic
depression during the 1930s. It was so effective that they were out of that
depression as early as 1933.

Deficit spending by the government is advocated here in the
context of recession or depression. It
is not applicable for individuals and corporations. They should exercise
caution when getting into debts.

Most of us are aware that there are good debts and bad
debts. There are two important conditions for a good debt. The first is that it
is needed for something critical and necessary or is a good investment. For
individuals it could be a primary residence, an automobile for basic
transportation to go to work, or a life- sustaining medical procedure. A good
investment can be funds for college or capital for a business. The second
critical condition for a good debt is that the borrower has the capacity or has
a reliable plan to repay the debt.

Deficit government spending during recession is a good debt.
It meets all conditions of a good debt. There is a vital need to get out of
recession. The resulting debt can be repaid by successful individuals and
corporations through taxes with relatively less pain because income and profits
and risen considerably. Increases in tax rates may not be necessary.

However, the government should not give in to pressures to
reduce taxes to cause deficits when there is no recession. This is a bad and an
unnecessary debt and would make the government less capable of reacting to an
impending recession.

This was amazing and cool to read!!! Who ever made this they must of have put in a lot of effort and I liked it!!!!!!!!!! #AMAZING

Stan 2 years ago

nice

Author

Thesource 4 years ago

Thank you knowingispower.

It is time people realize that blind spending cuts during recession is counterproductive to the economy. Spending cuts are often the mantra of certain politicians who claim they are doing it for the interest of the economy. Please think again if you believe them.

Tax breaks for the poor and the middle class => Bigger economic growth.

t20cook 6 years ago

a very good point of view.

blueorpurple 6 years ago

nice hub. carry it .....

Author

Thesource 6 years ago

Thank you Johnny Bridges for your input. Essential services such as transportation or trucking would be less sensitive to recession. However, shipment of luxury goods, toys, building materials, clothing, electronic products and other discretionary items are likely to drop. This may affect truckers or the delivery business to some degree.

Johnny Bridges 6 years ago

Thank you for this write-up on the recession. One career which is almost recession-proof is trucking. There are always products that have to be delivered, and truck driving jobs will be in demand. Just a thought...

Author

Thesource 6 years ago

Thank you for your input Fay Paxton. We have always been told by our parents, teachers and elders to cut back on spending and be thrifty. I have often advised my children to do the same. However, spending and borrowing are not always bad when there are justifications. We have to spend money on food, basic clothing, college tuition, shelter, and medicine. In bad times we try to cut-back and sometimes in extreme situations we may justify borrowing to survive or overcome a disaster. This is wise in context of personal finance. In the case of government spending during recession, the government needs to spend more or invest more to create jobs. They could do this by increasing spending on labor intensive jobs like infrastructure, education, law enforcement, scientific research and so forth. This is one of the only few situations where the government is justified in deficit financing, if necessary. The other case could be defense of the nation in a wartime situation. Once recession is over they should move away from deficit and have a balanced budget. Then we should naturally move out of deficit due to the growth in the economy. Government could then fine tune to balance the budget by re-adjusting spending, adjusting taxes and fiscal polices.

Fay Paxton 6 years ago

The government needs to inject money into the economy for the purpose of creating jobs. Employment creates tax revenue and a demand for goods. Businesses experience demand for goods, rehire and the economy grows. Spending needs to be cut, but people still need to go to work!!!

up/useful

Author

Thesource 6 years ago

Hi there, weholdthesetruth!

Nice to hear from you again.

I understand and respect this as your own opinion.

weholdthesetruths 6 years agofrom Western Flyover Country

This hub demonstrates a 100% ignorance of economics.

Author

Thesource 6 years ago

Thanks, Roychoudhury for your comments.

In recession, generally it is not wise to increase taxes even when there is a deficit. This creates a situation call deficit financing which is appropriate. However, under normal situations when there is no recession, taxes should be adjusted to balance the budget and to prevent deficit. In such conditions, it is not wise to reduce taxes and cause a deficit. This is what happened during the Bush era in the US. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan further compounded the budget deficit.

H P Roychoudhury 6 years agofrom Guwahati, India

The hub is outlining a path how a country should behave at the time of recession.